Personal Bests

A Look Back.

It’s amazing the difference a good sauce can make. Just a few simple ingredients whisked together can suddenly transport a dish from Asia to Italy – and generally, it all comes down to sauce.

As a self-proclaimed peanut butter addict, it should come as no surprise that peanut sauce is one of my favorite indulgences to find on a restaurant menu. I use the world indulgence, because unfortunately most of them need to be just that. While absolutely delicious, peanut sauce is right up there with alfredo – known for being one of the highest calorie and fat sauce offenders on restaurant menus.

My favorite dish in all of Old Town comes from Mai Thai restaurant, and is called Pa Ram Jae – sautéed tofu in a light yellow curry sauce on a bed of steamed watercress topped with peanut sauce. It is so rich and delicious that it can only mean one thing – it is not even remotely healthy.

While I do like to treat myself to Pa Ram Jae every now and then, more often I choose to make my own back at the house. With just four simple ingredients, you too can make delicious, healthy peanut sauce…

To Prepare: Before we dive into the preparation, let’s talk for a minute about a few of the ingredients. I’ve gone into great detail about my love for peanut flour before. And just for you folks that don’t have Trader Joe’s – look what I found! Trader Joe’s Peanut Flour – now available from Amazon. Yes, it is slightly more expensive than it costs in store, but that part is out of my control. If I could buy it and ship it to all of you, I promise I would. For now, at least there is an online option!

I have also received a few questions about another ingredient I use quite often – liquid aminos. What exactly is this stuff? Liquid aminos is an unfermented substitute for soy sauce, that is slightly lower in sodium than traditional soy sauce, as well as higher in amino acids and minerals. The most commonly seen bottle is Bragg’s. If you don’t have this, soy sauce or tamari are both similar substitutes.

Okay, so onto the sauce! Now comes the easy part. Dump all four ingredients, plus water, into a bowl and whisk to combines!

Viola! Delicious peanut sauce – as easy as that!

Now what to use it for? Honestly the possibilities are endless…

tossed with udon noodles

poured over an Asian stir-fry

salad dressing

dipping sauce for veggies

or TOFU MARINADE!

A few weeks ago I took a poll on Facebook, asking readers what they would like to see more of on Daily Garnish in 2011. I was so excited to see the number of people looking for more ways to enjoy TOFU! And it doesn’t get much better than tofu with peanut sauce.

To get started, first make sure to check out the original tofu tutorial, since we will be following the same process here. Press tofu under cookbooks for 10-15 minutes in order to remove excess moisture.

Then heat a non-stick pan over medium high heat and add a tsp of sesame oil. Once the pan is hot, add the tofu and arrange in a single layer.

Flip the tofu several times until it is starting to brown on all sides.

Since the peanut sauce is pretty salt-heavy, you can skip the salt & pepper step from the original tutorial. Once your tofu has good browning, it’s time to add the sauce. Make sure your pan is really hot, and get ready to work quickly. Pour the sauce onto the pan…

And then quickly stir, stir, stir!

It will get very sticky and thick almost immediately. Once all the sauce is in the pan, keep stirring and remove the pan from the heat (so that the sauce doesn’t burn).

The end result is crispy tofu cubes coated in thick, rich peanut sauce. Doesn’t get much better than that.

This tofu is wonderful all by itself, served over noodles or rice, or even thrown on top of a colorful salad…

Make sure to make a little extra sauce to use as salad dressing!

While traditional restaurant peanut sauces need to be saved for special occasions, this healthy alternative is something you could make several times a week. Not that I would know…

Can’t wait to try this! I made awful baked tofu a few days ago because the marinade was horrible! This looks much more promising! After successfully making your black bean burgers, you can do no wrong! :)

oh my! I’ve been wanting to make peanut sauce with my TJs peanut flour ever since I bought it…but so far had just been too lazy to play around with ingredients…thanks for taking the work out of it for me! :) Can’t wait to try this…
love,
cathy b. @ brightbakes

I love peanut sauce, but my version has just a two Tbsp. of peanut butter for several servings so it’s pretty healthy too. I really need to put it on tofu now that I’ve won Brad over to eating tofu too. I’m definitely going to try your PB sauce version too!

This is so funny- I bought tofu and am planning to make it for dinner tonight, as per your tutorial! I checked your blog to read over the recipe one last time before I dive in and you just posted this. It must be fate! haha. And, hopefully a sign that I’ll like tofu ;)

I’m cuckoo for tofu! And I love your vegan recipes, so this one makes me super-excited! It looks amazing!

I’ve been out of town and backlogged on reading blogs so I have a couple of late questions/comments for you.

Question: I didn’t comment on your calorie counting post (I’m in the camp of not counting, FYI) but I’m curious, since you’re advocating it, are you considering adding calorie counts to the recipes you post?

Comment: Yay on your decision to keep going with controversial posts! I look forward to more posts from you that push the envelope. That’s how we all learn and share ideas. Go, go, go!

Welcome back! :) A few people have asked me about adding calorie counts to recipes, and it’s definitely something I’m considering. The hard part for me would be determining what constitutes a serving size. It would be easier for things like baked goods that are clearly individual servings.

I’ve never tried peanut flour, but I might have to get some for the express purpose of making peanut sauce. In the past, I’ve just used peanut butter, but the already thick and sticky consistency makes it difficult to combine with other ingredients. Next time I visit TJs. . . .

I’ve been looking for a healthy peanut sauce as I am in love with the taste as well! I bought the TJ’s peanut flour for a recipe and heaven’t used it since, so I’m super excited to try this out with my next stir fry dinner!

Taking either real PB or peanut flour, mixing it with maple, agave, sesame oil, agave, ginger, OJ, ACV…just a mishmash of everything, and the result is always good. Peanut butter just makes everything…better. And is very forgiving!

I love pan frying tofu in sesame oil. It’s THE BEST. Except i get grease burns on my hands. lol

I’ve got some extra firm tofu sitting in my fridge right now looking for some love! ANd I know how it’s gonna get it now . . . Oh, and HOW MUCH DO YOU LOOOOOVE TERRY WALTER’S CLEAN FOOD AND CLEAN START? Am I crazy or are these the most amazing cookbooks?????

YUM! We love peanut sauce tofu at our house, too. We usually serve it with some wilted, garlicky spinach and spaghetti noodles (because my little boys won’t eat udon *weep*). I’ll have to try it w/peanut flour when it’s adults only (my kids need all the fat they can get).

This is totally and completely unrelated, but I’d be fascinated to hear your thoughts on the whole “primal” diet fad and that eating animals is essential and whole grains are bad for everyone.

(FYI, I’m posting this as someone who was a vegetarian for ten years, so this diet is out of the question for me.)

Hmmm I’m not sure I KNOW about the primal diet fad. Obviously I don’t think eating animals is essential – that is absurd. I think you can absolutely get all the essential proteins, amino acids, nutrients, etc. from plant-based foods, as long as you pay attention to your diet. As for as whole grains being bad? I know there is a lot of attention being given to going gluten-free right now. I’m not really sure what to think about it. I believe that gluten might be tough to digest, but I don’t believe whole grains are evil. I try to eat my whole grains earlier in the day, and have less of them in the evening. My body seems to work best that way. What do you think??

The primal or paleo diet is supposed to entirely consisting of meat (or eggs), and fruits and vegetables, a kind of “hunter gatherer” diet, and says that the human body can’t digest legumes or grains and there is some “bad” enzymes that attack the intestines and mess with weights and metabolisms. It says that we’re healthiest when eating these things and that they healthiest people in the world do this.

As for me–well, I can definitely see how cutting out refined flours and sugars and eating a lot more vegetables and healthy proteins will help people lose weight, but the diet seems to discount large communities in the world like the seventh day adventist vegan population in So. California that has the longest life span in America, collectively, or how heavy meat eaters have more incidences of colon cancer. I have no doubt that this diet can work for some people, though, but I don’t think it’s “unhealthy” to be vegetarian as some of the people on this diet claim. (Obviously!)

Hi Emily,
I’ve been a reader for a few months now, and finally wanted to comment to say hi! I’m looking forward to making this with some PB2! I got everyone in my family a jar for Christmas and they want to know ways to use it–thanks!

Just do the calorie count by volume or weight and let the diner do the math If you add each food in something like fitday food logs custom screens you can keep track of the cals and macro nutrients too and have a handy log of your creations close is good enough very useful

I put the peanut flour in my shopping cart right away, and honestly the shipping seems quite reasonible. I had actually search Amazon not that long ago to see if I could order it from there, so they must have just gotten it! I am so excited to try it, I go through WAY too much real PB!

I think it’s actually VERY cheap, considering how much protein you get. I buy the Whole Foods 365 brand (that is also organic) and it’s only $1.49 a pack. Nasoya typically runs $2.29 a pack – still not bad when compared to meat!

oooh….i might have to buy the peanut flour just to make that sauce…though i’m a bit sketched out by that much peanut for that little money…particularly as it’s not organic….peanuts generally contain a very high level of pesticide…oh well…i’ll just have a years and years supply of sauce…

Wow… this homemade peanut sauce sounds AMAZING!!! I love the detail you write each step in (and your explanation for the ingredients!), it makes it so easy! Seriously, can I pre-order your cookbook!? This needs to happen!

im fairly new to reading your blog and i just have to say how much i LOVE and look forward to your posts!! seriously a highlight to my day :)

a friend of mine came over tonight and i told her that we had to try your peanut sauce and tofu recipe and….amaaazing! we mixed in a ton of fresh veggies and it was delicious. im hooked on that peanut flour from trader joe’s; i too am a peanut butter addict so it’s nice to have a slightly healthier version :) but anyways, thank you!! i cant wait to try making your cutie clementine cupcakes!

Well . . . seeing as how I bought my first pack of peanut flour and my first bottle of liquid aminos and they are both sitting unopened in my pantry . . . I now have dinner plans for tonight! Thanks for the inspiration. I am always looking for new ways to get my husband to eat tofu!

You are my hero for finding Trader Joe’s peanut flour online! Since I have no TJ near me, I’ve been hoarding them home in my suitcase every time I travel. The storage is getting pretty ridiculous. Thank you!!

Hi Emily! Tofu question: A while back you recommended a low calorie tofu. I searched all the stores in town and could not find it, or any tofu with a similar calorie count. Do you have any other brands you recommend?

Hey Chrissy! Sadly my new Whole Foods in VA doesn’t carry the Nasoya light, so I’ve been buying the 365 Whole Foods brand. It’s only $1.49 per package, and about 350 calories for the whole thing. REALLY high in protein too!

I’ve recently discovered your blog through Gena’s blog, and I love it! As other readers have mentioned you definitely have some form of online telepathy – I was just thinking yesterday that I needed to find a dipping sauce for fried tofu, and just One Day later you deliver :) I already make a version of this sauce (adding siracha since i luuuurve it, and all things spicy) for rice paper salad wraps. Thanks for taking my own thoughts one step further!

This is excellent! Just made it over Soba noodles using soy sauce, and peanut oil (didn’t have sesame) and added some srirachra for a kick. I’ve been holding onto TJ’s PB flour wondering what to do with it. This is a keeper! Thanks!

I just made this last night! It was delicious! I used chicken instead of tofu cause the husband gets grumpy if I leave out the meat more then once or twice a week. One way I was taught to prep my tofu is to cover the block with a paper towel and microwave it at 60% power for one minute. Even if I press the moisture out first you should see how much I get out afterwards!!!! http://www.healthylivingbites.com/content/health-versary-feast That post has a picture (not the best) of my wet towel!

Just used your tofu tutorial and made this peanut sauce tonight with broccoli and whole wheat spaghetti, it was AWESOME!
Peanut sauce is one of my favorites and now I am so excited to be able to make it at home!
Thank you for the recipe and for making a 2011 goal to cook at home 5 nights/week with lunch leftovers easier :)

hey! i successfully followed your tofu tutorial and was impressed. i tried making this peanut sauce and the problem was that it was WAYYYYY too salty for me. Like WAY. The rice vinegar I used was seasoned, I wonder if that contributed to the saltiness. I think maybe I would try one tablespoon of liquid aminos next time instead of two? I can’t figure out what I could have done wrong. I think if it had been less salty it would have been perfect…I like your minimal ingredient healthy recipes btw

i trust your culinary godliness, and i know others made it succesfully, so im either going to blame the vinegar or the fact that im quite sensitive to salt – should ahve stuck with one tablespoon knowing that. Im learning to trust my preferential instincts slowly but surely. ive only recently started cooking, mostly its your fault and oh she glows fault that im even trying, lol. stop making things look so good!!

This is SO good! I have already made it a handful of times. I used powdered peanut butter because I couldn’t find any peanut flour in stores. It turned out delicious. This is now my favorite way to make tofu.

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